Gender Police Seize 'Vagina' for Feminism

The gender identifying term 'vagina' is offending trans men who are fighting for feminism

Feminists are atwitter on social media stumping for the movement and calling out any offenders in the process. But as The Nation points out, feminists are even calling out each other for "ideological offenses."

In a revolution-eats-its-own irony, some online feminists have even deemed the word “vagina” problematic.

The article recounts a situation involving feminist activist and actress Martha Plimpton -- star of Fox comedy "Raising Hope" and "Stef" from The Goonies -- who organized an event to help fund Texas abortions. The one-night-only comedy show, "A Night of a Thousand Vaginas" featured none other than Sarah Silverman and raised around $20,000. Of course to promote this event, Plimpton took to Twitter to announce the show, which inadvertently caused offense amongst other online feminists -- namely, transgender men and their supporters.

The term "vagina" was deemed problematic for trans men that "don't want their reproductive organs coded as female." A Twitter war began. In reaction to the backlash of using the term, Plimpton told The Nation:

I’m not going to stop using the word ‘vagina’ for anybody, whether it’s Glenn Beck or Mike Huckabee or somebody on Twitter who feels it creates a dysphoric response.

Tim Graham at Newsbusters.org points to an NPR talk show that discussed this article at length on air. One of the guests weighed in on the "controversy" by adding a bit of "lunatic" science that has never, ever been verified:

I think that with Martha Plimpton, when you say that you are speaking for all of these women in reproductive health and reproductive justice, then you need to be aware that it's not just women that get pregnant. You need to be aware that vaginas don't get pregnant. Uteruses can contain a baby, but you don't have to have a vagina in order to be pregnant.

The reality in all of this: In the world of online Twitter wars, there really are no winners.